introduction to quantum mechanics griffiths second edition

chapter 4 of Shankar's Principles of Quantum Mechanics (Hardcover))Īn important fact that quantum states (and not wave functions) and operators in Hilbert space are geometric objects that do not depend on a particular representation is not emphasized enough when discussing finite-dimensional systems, Griffiths never demonstrates a change of (orthonormal) basis.

The many subtleties of postulates are never spelled out. For example, the Schrödinger equation specialized to the position space is given from the get-go with the motivation that it is the quantum equivalence of Newton's equation of motion, which is true, but not really helpful a child may be familiar with the notion of forces, but not Hamiltonians and complex amplitudes. The formalism is not developed logically, and, overall, the book is very weak in formalism. The author takes the shut-up-and-calculate approach to the extreme (like how standard freshman physics textbooks present QM). This is not helped by the fact that the book shies away from the math of QM: linear algebra and the concise Dirac notation, which is introduced but quickly discarded. The bad: While a step by step calculation makes it easy to follow, one often gets lost in details and misses the big picture. For example, Griffiths takes his time to explain standard deviations, separation of variables, and phase and group velocity in the beginning. Update (05/15/16): tl dr: I would give this book more stars if it is titled 'Introduction to Wave Mechanics.'įirst, the good: this book doesn't require mastery of 'advanced' classical physics and math such as Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, electromagnetism, partial differential equations, linear algebra, or statistics.

Introduction to quantum mechanics griffiths second edition